During “catch forest brigand veerappan operation” , Special Task Forcepolice personnel , illegally arrested , detained , tortured &murdered innocent tribal people of both tamil nadu & Karnataka states.NHRC has clearly noted the crimes of STF personnel & ordered bothKarnataka & tamil nadu governments to pay compensation to victims ofpolice atrocities. However still some of these victims are not yetpaid compensation by these governments , why ? also , the governmentinstead of legally prosecuting guilty police officers on murdercharges , has given awards & promotion to guilty inhuman policeofficers. Is the government sending a message that 3rd degree torture& murders in lock-up / fake encounters is acceptable & legal ? is itequitable justice ? is there one set of law for police & another forcommon people ?

Hereby , we do once again request your kindself , to dismiss guiltypolice officials from police service , to withhold their pensionbenefits , to legally prosecute them on charges of murders ofinnocent tribal people & on charges of attempt to murder innocenttribal people by 3rd degree torture methods. Hereby , we also requestyou to make public JUSTICE A.J. SADA SHIVA COMMISSION’s findingsabout atrocities by STF personnel.

To order the prison authorities to subject the four convicts, accomplices of Veerappan to Narco analysis & Bran mapping tests in a fair manner with unbiased questionnaire.

So that truth will come out about Ex-Minister Nagappa's Murdercase, Amount of Ransoms paid during all kidnap episodes including Movie star Raj Kumar's kidnap episode. Truth will come out about the Minister M.L.As. M.Ps. Police & Forest Officials who have stacked away riches by helping him. Truth will come about Granite quarry owners who helped him. Truth will come out about traders, merchants who traded in goods , sandal wood , Ivory supplied by forest brigand Veerappan.

To order the Govt of Karnataka , to make public the Justice A JSadashiva's commission's final report & complete proceedings . Then the truth will come out, how the STF personnel, police tortured tribal people at a place called WORK SHOP IN M M HILLS how they gang raped tribal women repeatedly for days together, how they burnt their breasts, how they pushed sticks smeared with chilli sambar powder into their anus. How the police tied men folk upside down from the ceiling . How many died, unable to bear the shame & torture ? Are not these brutal inhuman STF police personnel fit to be hanged till death, along with four accomplices of Veerappan ?

To order the National Human Rights Commission to make public the findings of its independent enquiry conducted about the police torture on tribal people. Violations of human rights of tribal people in the forest brigand veerappan's Territory i.e. M M Hills.

Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.

Your’s Sincerely,

Nagaraja.M.R.

The United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture – 26 June is held annually on 26 June to speak out against the crime of torture and to honour and support victims and survivors throughout the world.

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This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable. It is long overdue that a day be dedicated to remembering and supporting the many victims and survivors of torture around the world.

At a time when the legitimate aspirations of people in many regions of the world for greater freedom, dignity and a better life are too often met with violence and repression, I urge States to respect the fundamental rights of all people. Torture and other forms of cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment and punishment, wherever they occur and whatever the circumstances, can never be justified.

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International Torture day in Support of Torture Victims- 26th June

United Nations has designated 26thJune as the International Day Against Torture to emphasize the importance of the right to personal dignity and security of all individuals around the world, guaranteed within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It is the anniversary of a landmark event in the fight for human rights. It is meant to commemorate the adoption of the Convention Against Torture by the United Nations General Assembly. In India June 26 has a special significance as in 1975 on this day the dreaded EMERGENCY was declared.

In October 1997, the Government of India signed the Convention Against Torture (CAT) making the following statement: "The Convention corresponds to the ethos of Indian democracy, rule of law, individual freedom, personal liberty and security enshrined in Indian polity. Signature of the Convention Against Torture by India is an important milestone in the process of India's continued commitment to fundamental and human rights of all persons and directive principles of national policy. Ratification of the Convention is to follow." Yet, torture continues to be a part of the administrative system in many parts of our country. Over the last decade, there has been mounting evidence that torture has become an institutionalised practice within India.

Center for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT), commemorated the International day in support of torture victims by staging company theatre's play ' voices' in the University campus, kalina in Mumbai. The play depicted various forms of torture. After the play, a discussion was held on the issue of torture and human rights. Students largely felt that India should ratify the Convention against Torture (CAT) Snaps of the play

This convention bans torture under all circumstances and establishes the UN Committee against Torture. In particular, it defines torture, requires states to take effective legal and other measures to prevent torture, declares that no state of emergency, other external threats, nor orders from a superior officer or authority may be invoked to justify torture. It forbids countries to return a refugee to his country if there is reason to believe he/she will be tortured, and requires host countries to consider the human rights record of the person's native country in making this decision.

The CAT requires states to make torture illegal and provide appropriate punishment for those who commit torture. It requires states to assert jurisdiction when torture is committed within their jurisdiction, either investigate and prosecute themselves, or upon proper request extradite suspects to face trial before another competent court. It also requires states to cooperate with any civil proceedings against accused torturers.

Each state is obliged to provide training to law enforcement and military on torture prevention, keep its interrogation methods under review, and promptly investigate any allegations that its officials have committed torture in the course of their official duties. It must ensure that individuals who allege that someone has committed torture against them are permitted to make and official complaint and have it investigated, and, if the complaint is proven, receive compensation, including full medical treatment and payments to survivors if the victim dies as a result of torture. It forbids states to admit into evidence during a trial any confession or statement made during or as a result of torture. It also forbids activities which do not rise to the level of torture, but which constitute cruel or degrading treatment. The second part of the Convention establishes the Committee Against Torture, and sets out the rules on its membership and activities.CEHAT strongly believes that Toture is a health and Human rights issue. It is a slow process that is designed to render its victim helpless, dependent and devoid of all human qualities. Torture destroys the sense of self; it confuses right and wrong; any belief in the stability of the world is taken away; "truth" becomes a word without meaning. Methods of torture are limited only by the fiendish fantasies of those whose business it is to break others down. Physical methods include beating, electric shock (especially to the genitals), stretching (as on a rack), asphyxiation techniques such as submersion in contaminated water and smothering with plastic, burning, blows to the ears, forced standing or forms of suspension, sexual assault of men and women, sometimes with trained dogs. Psychological methods include sensory deprivation, anonymity and dehumanizing experiences, exposure to the sounds/sight of others being tortured. Physical effects are both acute and chronic. Physicians may see survivors with symptoms and disabilities related to their torture experiences. Some typical debilitating symptoms include: sleeplessness, headache, fatigue, chronic musculoskeletal pains, gastrointestinal problems, neurologic disorders, and sexual dysfunction. The long-term psychological effects of torture may be manifested by symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and alcohol/substance abuse.

India is signatory to the Convention Against Torture (CAT), and while it is yet to ratify the instrument, the signature implies an intention to eventually incorporate the provisions of the Convention into domestic law. The Convention specifically prohibits the use of torture, obliging every State Party to “take effective legal, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.”

Article 21 of the Constitution of India provides that “[n]o person shall be deprived of his life and liberty except according to procedure established by law”. The right to life in Article 21 of the Constitution of India does not mean mere survival or existence. It encompasses the right to live with dignity. Torture is inflicted with the aim of degrading a person and involves the violation of dignity. It therefore falls within the ambit of Article 21. Further safeguards are provided under other articles of the Constitution. Under Article 20(3), no person accused of any offence can be compelled to be a witness against himself. Article 22 (1) and (2) provide that a person who is arrested must be informed as soon as may be of the grounds of his arrest. The person also has the right to consult a lawyer of his choice. An arrested person must be produced before the nearest magistrate within 24 hours of his arrest.

The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) also requires the production of accused before court within 24 hours. Section 54 of the CrPC gives the arrestee the right to be medically examined. No statement of a witness recorded by a police officer, according to Section 162 of the CrPC, can be used for any purpose other than contradicting such a statement. Thus admission of guilt before a police officer is not admissible in a court of law. Section 164 of the CrPC requires that the magistrate must ensure that a confession by the accused is voluntary. Sections 330 and 331 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) make it a penal offence to cause hurt to a person in order to extract a confession.

A victim of torture by the police is entitled to move the Supreme Court of India under Article 32 of the Constitution or the concerned High Court under Article 226. The Supreme Court and different High Courts have entertained various writ petitions alleging police torture of prisoners. According to the Supreme Court, any form of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment fall within the ambit of Article 21 of the Constitution – whether be it during interrogation, investigation or otherwise. A person does not shed his fundamental right to life when he is arrested. Article 21 cannot be denied to arrested persons or prisoners in custody (D K Basu v State of West Bengal).On this day CEHAT demanded that INDIA RATIFIES THE CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND MEETS ALL STATE OBLIGATIONS AS MANDATED IN THE CONVENTION

We condemn the cruel practices , murders committed by Naxalites & Terrorists. The Cruelty by Naxalites , Terrorists does not legally authorize law enforcing agencies to commit cruelty , murders in retaliation , an eye for an eye. We are a democratic republic.

It is utter shame , that a suspected female maoist person was tortured by police inspite of strictures issued by the presiding judge. Refer the LAWS OF JUNGLE in The Week dated 01.01.2012. Here the presiding judge of the court failed to ensure the safety of a suspect inspite of her repeated appeals to the court. The Police showed utter contempt to the orders of the court & subjected the suspect to third degree torture. The Judge & Police in the said case attempted to murder the suspect by way of third degree torture . If the suspect is convicted by the court about her crimes , let the court punish her as per legal provisions. Who are police to punish her ? is it not the duty of presiding judge of a case to ensure safety of both parties & witnesses thereof ? Why not the legal prosecution of guilty judge & police for above crimes ? Why not third degree torture , aero-plane rides for the guilty judge & police ?Aeroplane is the most cruelest form of 3rd degree torture perpetratedby police on suspects. Many innocent people have confessed to crimeshey have not at all committed unable to bear the torture , pain. Manyinnocents have been murdered in lock-ups by police during these typeof 3rd degree torture. Even if we go by the logic of police thatcriminals only sing under torture & they rightly deserve it , when apetty criminal stealing Rs.10000 is fit for "AEROPLANE TORTURE" ,what about criminals stealing crores of rupees , what about corruptpolice who aid tens of such big time criminals by filing B-report ,by putting weak case of prosecution , by delaying tactics allowingfor destruction of evidences , etc , what about judges who acquits bigtime criminals , who give judicial orders while they are in a drunkenstate , who acquit big criminals by conducting hearings even on datesof government holidays (concocted). ARE NOT THESE CORRUPT POLICE &JUDGES FIT FOR "BUSINESS CLASS AEROPLANE RIDE TORTURE as per thesame logic of police.

Why not 3rd degree torture of Chief Justice of India , Union Home Secretary and DG & IG of Police for Karnataka who are NOT ANSWERING our RTI questions ?

At the outset , e - Voice salutes the few honest police personnel whoaresilently doing their duties inspite of pressures , harassment bypolitical bosses & corrupt superiors , inspite of frequent transfers ,promotion holdups , etc. overcoming the lure of bribe ,those few aresilently doing their duties without any publicity or fanfare. wesalutethem & pay our respects to them and hereby appeal to those few honestto catch their corrupt colleagues.

The police are trained , to crack open the cases of crimes by justholding onto a thread of clue. Based on that clue they investigatelike"Sherlock holmes" and apprehend the real criminals. nowadays , whenpolice are under various pressures , stresses - they are frequentlyusing 3rd degree torture methods on innocents. Mainly there are 3reasons for this :1) when the investigating officer (I.O) lacks the brains ofSherlockholmes , to cover-up his own inefficiency he uses 3rd degree tortureoninnocents.2) When the I.O is biased towards rich , powerful crooks , toframeinnocents & to extract false confessions from them , 3rd degreetortureis used on innocents.3) When the I.O is properly doing the investigations , but thehigher-ups need very quick results - under work stress I.O uses 3rddegree torture on innocents.

Nowhere in statuette books , police are legally authorized to punishlet alone torture the detainees / arrested / accussed / suspects. Onlythe judiciary has the right to punish the guilty not the police. Eventhe judiciary doesn't have the right to punish the accussed /suspects , then how come police are using 3rd degree tortureunabetted.Even during encounters , police only have the legal right , authorityto immobilize the opponents so as to arrest them but not to kill them.

There is a reasoning among some sections of society & police that useof 3RD DEGREE TORTURE by police is a detterent of crimes. It is false& biased. Take for instance there are numerous scams involving 100'sof crores of public money - like stock scam , fodder scam , etcinvolving rich businessmen , VVIP crooks. Why don't police use 3rddegree torture against such rich crooks and recover crores of publicmoney where as the police use 3rd degree torture against apick-pocketer to recover hundred rupees stolen ? double standards bypolice.

In media we have seen numerous cases of corrupt police officials inleague with criminals. For the sake of bribe , such police officialsbury cases , destroy evidences , go slow , frame innocents , murderinnocents in the name of encounter , etc. why don't police use 3rddegree torture against their corrupt colleagues who are aidingcriminals , anti nationals ? double standards by police.

All the bravery of police is shown before poor , innocents , tribals ,dalits , before them police give the pose of heroes. Whereas , beforerich , VVIP crooks , they are zeroes. They are simply like scarecrowsbefore rich crooks.

Torture in any form by anybody is inhuman & illegal. For the purposeofinvestigations police have scientific investigative tools likepolygraph, brain mapping , lie detector , etc. these scientific toolsmust be used against rich crooks & petty criminals without bias.

Hereby we urge the GOI & all state governments :1) to book cases of murder against police personnel who use 3rddegreetorture on detainees and kill detainees in the name of encounterkillings.2) To dismiss such inhuman , cruel personnel from police serviceand toforfeit all monetary benefits due to them like gratuity , pension ,etc.3) To pay such forfeited amount together with matching governmentcontribution as compensation to family of the victim's of 3rd degreetorture & encounter killings.4) To review , all cases where false confessions were extractedfrominnocents by 3rd degree torture.5) To make liable the executive magistrate of the area , in whosejurisdiction torture is perpetrated by police on innocents.6) To make it incumbent on all judicial magistrates ,to provide atorture free climate to all parties , witnesses in cases before hiscourt.7) To make public the amount & source of ransom money paid toforestbrigand veerappan to secure the release of matinee idol mr. raj kumar.8) To make public justice A.J.Sadashiva's report on "torture oftribals , human rights violations by Karnataka police in M.M.HILLS ,KARNATAKA".9) To make it mandatory for police to use scientific tools ofinvestigations like brain mapping , polygraph , etc without biasagainst suspects rich or poor.10) To include human rights education in preliminary & refreshertraining of police personnel.11) To recruit persons on merit to police force who have aptitude&knack for investigations.12) To insulate police from interference from politicians &superiors.13) To make police force answerable to a neutral apex body insteadofpolitical bosses. Such body must be empowered to deal with all servicematters of police.14) The political bosses & the society must treat police in ahumanemanner and must know that they too have practical limitations. Then ona reciprocal basis , police will also treat others humanely.15) The police must be relieved fully from the sentry duties ofbiggies& must be put on detective , investigative works.

Nowadays , we are seeing reports of corruption by police & judges inthe media and are also seeing reports of raids by vigilanceauthorities seizing crores of wealth from such corrupt police. SomeJudges have also amassed crores of wealth. Who gives them money ? itis rich criminals , anti-nationals . By taking bribe & hiding thecrimes of criminals , the corrupt police & judges are themselvesbecoming active parties in the crimes , anti-national activities.Those shameless , corrupt police & judges are nothing but traitors &anti – nationals themselves. When an innocent is subjected to 3rddegree torture to extract truth with justification by investigatingagencies that all for the sake of national security , what degree oftorture these corrupt , anti-national police & judges qualify for ?what type of aeroplane or helicopter the corrupt police / judges mustride ? ofcourse , for protection of national security. Here alsopolice & judges have double standards , what a shame.

We at e – voice are for "Rule of Law" & abhor all type of violence.Truly these police & judges are not building a Ram Rajya of ourMahatma Gandhi's dream.

Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.

Your's sincerely,

Nagaraj.M.R.

CRIMINALS IN POLICE UNIFORM- An appeal to union home minister & Karnataka state home minister

The ABC of police force in India is apathy ,brutality & corruption . in India, police are not impartiallyenforcinglaw instead are working as hand maidens of rich & mighty. The corruptpolice officers are collecting protection money from criminals ,collecting money to go slow on investigations , to file B- reports ,tofix innocents in fake cases , to murder innocents in lock-up /encounters . they are hand in league with land mafia , today C.M ofKarnataka himself issued a warning to police officials about this. Even in lock-ups , jails, the rich inmates bribeofficials get better food from outside , mobile phones , drugs ,drinks, cigareetes , etc. they get spacious cells & get best private medicalcare . where as the poor inmates are even denied food , health care ,living space as per the provisions of law. The corrupt jail officialsinstigate rowdy elements in the jails to assault poor inmates & to toetheir line. More corrupt the police more wealthier he is. Even CBIofficials are no different. The only beacon of hope is still there arefew honest people left in the police force. Hereby , e-voice urges you to make public thefollowinginformation in the interest of justice.

They are our own Gitmos. Where, far away from the prying eyes of the law, ‘enemies of the state’ are made to ‘sing’. Life inside India’s joint interrogation cells can scar people for life. THE WEEK investigates

By Syed Nazakat

Little Terrorist, as the intelligence sleuths came to call him, turned out to be a hard nut to crack. No amount of torture would work on 20-year-old Mohammed Issa, who was picked up from Delhi on February 5, 2006. The Delhi Police believed that he had a hotline to Lashkar-e-Toiba deputy chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhwi, who later masterminded the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. At a secret detention centre in Delhi, the police and intelligence officers tried every single torture method in their arsenal—from electric shock to sleep deprivation—to make Issa sing. He stuck to his original line: that he had come from Nepal to visit a relative in Delhi. Only, they refused believe him.

According to the police, the youth from Uttar Pradesh, who had moved to Nepal in 2000 along with his family after his father, Irfan Ahmed, was accused in a terrorism case, returned to India to set up Lashkar modules in the national capital. More than six months after he was picked up, the police announced his arrest on August 14. He has since been shifted to the Tihar jail. His lawyer N.D. Pancholi said Issa was kept in illegal custody for months. If not, let the police say where he was between February 5 and August 15, he challenged.

Issa could have been detained in any of Delhi’s joint interrogation centres, used by the police and intelligence agencies to extract precious information from the detainees using methods frowned upon by the law. As one top police officer told THE WEEK in the course of our investigation, these torture chambers spread across the country are our “precious assets”. They are our own little Guantanamo Bays or Gitmos (where the US tortures terror suspects from Afghanistan and elsewhere for information).

Not many admit their existence, because doing so could result in human rights activists knocking at their doors and bad press for the smartly dressed intelligence men. It is a murky and dangerous world, according to K.S. Subramanian, Tripura’s former director-general of police, who has also served in the Intelligence Bureau. “Such sites exist and are being used to detain and interrogate suspected terrorists and it has been going on for a long time,” he told THE WEEK. “Even senior police officers are reluctant to talk about the system.” So are people who have been to these virtual hells that officially do not exist.

THE WEEK has identified 15 such secret interrogation centres—three each in Mumbai, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, two each in Kolkata and Gujarat and one each in Rajasthan and Assam. (One detention centre that is shared by all security and law enforcement agencies is the one in Palanpur, close to the Indo-Pak border in Rajasthan.) Their locations have been arrived at after speaking to serving and retired top officers who had helped set up some of these facilities. Those who have spent time in these places had no idea where they are. They were taken blindfolded and were allowed no visitors. The only faces they got to see were those of the interrogators, day in and day out.

The biggest of the three detention centres in Mumbai, the Aarey Colony facility in Goregaon, has four rooms. The Anti-Terrorism Squad questioned Saeed Khan (name changed), one of the accused in the Malegaon blasts of September 2006, here. He was served food at irregular intervals (led to temporary disorientation) and was denied sleep. Another secret detention centre maintained in the city by the ATS at Kalachowky has a sound-proof room. Sohail Shaikh, accused in the July 2006 train bombings, was held here for close to two months. “He was kept in isolation for days together,” said an officer. “He crumbled after being subjected to hostile sessions. Intentional infliction of suffering does not always yield immediate results. Sometimes you have to wait for many days for the detainee to break. It is a tedious process.” The smallest of the three facilities at Chembur has just two rooms.

Parvez Ahmed Radoo, 30, of Baramula district in Kashmir, was illegally detained in Delhi for over a month for allegedly trying to plot mass murder in the national capital on behalf of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Delhi Police’s chargesheet says he was arrested from the Azadpur fruit market in Delhi on October 14, 2006. But according to Parvez’s flight itinerary, he travelled from Srinagar to Delhi on September 12 on Spice Jet flight 850. The flight landed at Delhi airport at 12.10 p.m. He had to catch another flight at 1.30 p.m. (Spice Jet flight 217) to Pune, where, according to his parents, he was going to pursue his Ph.D. But he never boarded the Pune flight as he disappeared from the Delhi airport.

Parvez wrote an open letter from the Tihar jail, where he is currently held, in which he said he was arrested from the airport on September 12 and kept in custody for a month. Apparently, he was first taken to the Lodhi Colony police station and then to an apartment in Dwarka, where electrodes were attached to his genitals and power was switched on. (Delhi’s secret detention centres are located at Dwarka in south-west Delhi, the Interstate Cell of the Crime Branch in Chanakyapuri in central Delhi, and the Lodhi Colony police station in south Delhi.)

“After my arrest on September 12, I was taken to Pune, where I was shown pictures of many Kashmiri boys,” Parvez said in the letter, which is in the possession of THE WEEK. “They wanted me to identify them. As I didn’t know any one of them, they brought me to Delhi again and threw me into the torture chamber of Lodhi Road [sic] police station. They took off my clothes and started beating me like an animal, so ruthlessly that my feet and fingers started bleeding. I was later forced to clean the blood-stained floor with my underwear. They gave me electric shocks and stretched my legs to extreme limits, resulting in internal haemorrhage. I started passing blood with my urine and stool. Later I was shifted to one flat in Dwarka. From the adjacent flats, voices of crying and screaming had been coming, indicating presence of other persons being tortured.”

Throughout his detention, wrote Parvez, he was asked to lie to his parents that everything was fine. In the letter he also gave the mobile number from which the calls were made—9960565152. His family is trying to collect the call site details of the number to prove his illegal detention.

Delhi-based journalist Iftikhar Geelani, who spent nine days in the Lodhi Colony police station after his arrest in 2002 on spying charges, is yet to get over the traumatic experience. “There are lock-ups with such low ceilings that a person will not be able to stand,” he said. “There is an interrogation centre within the police station where people are brutally tortured with cables, and some are completely undressed and abused. They also have a facility to raise the temperature of the cell to a point where it is unbearable and then suddenly bring it down to freezing cold.”

But Maloy Krishna Dhar, former joint director of the IB, confirmed the existence of secret detention centres in Delhi and other parts of the country. He was convinced that detention outside the police station and torture are an inevitable part of the war on terrorism. “Now I would never dream of doing the things I did when I was in charge,” said Dhar. “But security agencies need such facilities.” Interrogating suspected terrorists at secret detention centres, he said, is the most effective way to gather intelligence. “If you produce a suspect before court, he will never give you anything after that,” he said. In other words, once you record the arrest you are within the realm of the law and you have to acknowledge the rights of the accused-arrested and contend with his lawyer.

An officer who worked in one of the detention centres admitted that extreme physical and psychological torture, based loosely on the regime in Guantanamo Bay, is used to extract information from the detainees. It includes assault on the senses (pounding the ear with loud and disturbing music) and sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly administering drugs through the rectum to further break down their dignity. “The interrogators isolate key operatives so that the interrogator is the only person they see each day,” he said. “In extreme cases we use pethidine injections. It will make a person crazy.”

Molvi Iqbal from Uttar Pradesh, a suspected member of the Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami who is currently lodged in Tihar, was held at a secret detention centre for two months according to his relatives. They alleged that during interrogation a chip was implanted under his skin so that his movements could be tracked if he tried to escape. “He fears that the chip is still inside his skin,” said one of his relatives. “That has shattered him.”

Kolkata has its own Gitmos in Bhabani Bhawan, the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department, and the Alipore Retreat in Tollygunj, a large bungalow that is said to have 20 rooms. They were bursting at the seams at the height of the Naxalite movement, but are more or less quiet now. “A large number of innocent people, as well as suspected terrorists, have disappeared after being taken to such secret detention centres,” said Kirity Roy, a Kolkata-based human rights lawyer. “Their bodies would later be found, if at all, in the fields.”

That was how militancy was tackled, first in Punjab and then in Kashmir. Today no secret prison exists in Kashmir officially after the notorious Papa-2 interrogation centre was closed down. But secret torture cells thrive across the state. The most notorious ones are the Cargo Special Operation Group (SOG) camp in Haftchinar area in Srinagar and Humhama in Budgam district. Then there are the joint interrogation centres in Khanabal area of Anantnag district and Talab Tillo and Poonch areas in Jammu region. Detentions at JICs could last months. Lawyers in Kashmir have filed 15,000 petitions since 1990 seeking the whereabouts of the detainees and the charges against them without avail.

The most recent victim of the torture regime was Manzoor Ahmed Beigh, 40, who was picked by the SOG from Alucha Bagh area in Srinagar on May 18. His family alleged that he was chained up, hung upside down from the ceiling and ruthlessly beaten up. He died the same night. Following public outrage, the officer in charge of the camp was dismissed from the service in June.

Maqbool Sahil, a Srinagar-based photojournalist who was held at Hariniwas interrogation centre for 15 days, says it is a miracle that he is alive today. “If you tell them [interrogators] you are innocent, they will torture you so ruthlessly that you will break down and confess to anything,” he says.

Human rights organisations are understandably concerned. Navaz Kotwal, coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said that there should be an open debate on the illegal detention centres. “The US had a debate on the Gitmos. Our government should come forward and respond to these allegations,” he said.

No one wants to compromise the nation’s safety, but the torture becomes unbearable, and questionable, when innocent people like the 14-year-old boy Irfan suffer (see box on page ). The security of the country and its people is important and terrorism should be crushed at all cost. But the largest democracy in the world should also ensure that human rights are not violated.

Dhar defended the secret prison system, arguing that the successful defence of the country required that the security establishment be empowered to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without restrictions imposed by the legal system. “The primary mission of the agencies is to save the nation both by overt and covert means from any terrorist threat,” he said. “But to keep the programme secret is a horrible burden.”

with Anupam Dasgupta

(The Week, July 12, 2009)

INTERVIEW//K.S. Subramanian, former director general of police, Tripura

“It is a murky business”

By Syed Nazakat

Former director general of police, Tripura, Dr K.S. Subramanian, can be called an insider. He has served in the Intelligence Bureau, worked as director in the research and policy division of the home ministry and has been chief of intelligence in the troubled northeast. In an interview with THE WEEK, he shares his knowledge about the illegal detention centres in India. He is frustrated over the shadowy work of some police officers and over incidents like the killing of 59 innocent people, which the police called a naxal encounter. He recalls how a senior IPS officer shouted at ‘naxalites’ in a conference and said, “When I hear you people talk, I wish I had brought my revolver!” Excerpts.

There are allegations that suspected terrorists are being detained illegally in and out of police stations and tortured.

Unfortunately, priority is given to peace and order at the cost of law and justice, which might have led to the emergence of such facilities.

Have you come across such facilities during your service?

It is likely that such sites do exist and are used to detain and interrogate suspected terrorists. Perhaps they have existed for long. However, the Union home ministry is handicapped with regard to the information it receives on many issues of internal security. The IB, manned entirely by the IPS at the top, and the state police agencies are its main source of information. Often, their reports are biased and inadequate for policy formulation. I can cite many instances. In terrorist-related cases, the police may feel an incentive to describe people as terrorists and kill them for professional reasons and career advancement.

Who controls these illegal detention centres? What was your experience in the home ministry?

It is a murky business. Senior police officers would be hesitant to talk about the system in operation. The ministry of home affairs does not directly handle such operations; they are the task of agencies like the RAW and the IB. Public awareness about such activities can help check such illegalities, but you know that recently even agencies of advanced democracies such as the US have come to adverse notice for running such centres. President Obama has been courageous about admitting the unethical nature of such facilities in the US and trying to close them down. There is scope for a healthy debate on such issues in a vibrant democracy such as ours.

Many die inside these torture chambers.

Last year, the NGO People’s Watch brought out a disturbing report on police torture, which showed, after an extensive study in several states, that about 1.8 million people, most of them belonging to SC/ST communities, minorities and women, are victim to police torture every year in India. Shockingly, there has been no official refutation of this important report so far. I remember when I was director in the Union ministry of home affairs [between 1980 and 1985], there was a series of incidents in a north Indian state in which, according to the press, a large number of so called naxalites were killed in police action. There was uproar in Parliament. The state police and the central IB maintained that only 12 people were killed, and that all of them were naxalites.

However, when the state chief secretary was asked to come to the Union home ministry for a discussion, he frankly admitted that no less than 59 people were killed in these incidents and that none of them was a naxalite! Most of those killed were members of a local peasant organisation fighting for social justice under the Constitution and other laws of the land.

Many argue that to ensure peace, the country requires that the security establishment be empowered to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without restrictions imposed by the legal system. Do you agree?

I know there is the fear of terrorism, and it’s a different world. But maintaining our moral compass during these difficult times, and the integrity of who we are as people, is enormously critical. So to me, this isn’t just about illegal detention. It’s about the policies still in place that can contribute to establishment of our Gitmos.

How can the police deal with terrorism and at the same time uphold rule of law and human rights?

There are set rules for the police to follow. But the problem is that there is a tendency among some officers to believe that while dealing with suspected terrorists, they are not obliged to follow constitutional methods. Our leaders may say we don’t believe in torture, but many in our intelligence and police agencies think there is a place for torture in the investigation of cases, especially terrorist related. There is a need for attitudinal change in many police officers.

(The Week, July 12, 2009)

Little Terrorist

By Syed Nazakat in Delhi

The playful spark of a 14-year-old is missing in Irfan’s eyes. Instead there is helplessness, pain, horror and a lurking fear. The dark shades could make him anything—a crusader, a criminal or plain timid. The training ground was a forlorn torture chamber somewhere in Gujarat.The boy was picked up on May 25 last year allegedly by the Gujarat Police, who were in fact looking for his father, Mohammed Azhar. Irfan still remembers the white Tavera (GCIG-4522) that screeched to a halt in front of him as he was trying to cross the road outside his shop in Seelampur. Two men got out, held a pistol to his head and pushed him into the car. Later, they pinned him down with their feet, kicked him in the torso and slapped him several times. And when he tried to speak, he got a sharp jab in the ribs.Lying on the floor of the car, the boy had no idea where he was being taken. His captors drove whole day and night and finally he was pulled out from the car into a detention centre, which had two black cells. He was dumped into one of them. There were no windows in the cell, yet from the honking of the vehicles and the occasional noise of a crowd, he guessed the place to be not far from the city.The detention was almost a Guantanamo or an Abu Ghraib from his narration. His interrogators wore civilian dress, but were near cannibals in attitude. Irfan was interrogated by a tall person, whose name he doesn’t remember. “The man would brutally beat me up and tell me, ‘As long as your father does not surrender, we will not let you go’.”

Back home, Irfan’s mother, Tasleema, was frantically searching for him. Fortunately, his friends had seen the number plate of the Tavera. The family complained to the Seelampur police station, and three days later, Tasleema was told that her son was in the custody of Gujarat Police in Ahmedabad.She then filed a habeas corpus petition before the Delhi High Court, which directed the police to release the boy. Thus, after 10 days of detention, Irfan was brought back and released. On the court’s direction, the Seelampur police have lodged an FIR against the Gujarat Police.

Irfan’s tiny body is now a shambles. His mother says she was shattered when she heard about the torture her son had to bear. “Since his release, he is being treated for abdominal pain and discomfort,” she says. The boy’s ordeal has not ended yet. His family gets threat calls from the Gujarat Police, warning them not to appear before the court. Irfan’s father hasn’t yet returned home, making his family prone to more police harassment.A day before the last hearing in the case, the police raided his home at 3 a.m. “We have lodged a report against the Gujarat Police,” Tasleema says. The Seelampur police station refused to comment on the case, but confirmed that an FIR has been filed against the Gujarat Police.We got to know of the depth of Irfan’s fear only when we got up to leave. With tears in his eyes, he pleaded for our help. “Please save me from the police,” he says. He fears they might any day return for him.(Name of the boy has been changed to protect identity)

(THE WEEK, July12, 2009)

Fifteen days of horror

By Maqbool Sahil

Once I was inside my cell, I wondered aloud: Where am I? A voice filtering through the slit in the steel door told me that I was in the Hariniwas interrogation chamber in Kashmir. I was picked up on September 16, 2006, by the Counter Insurgency Kashmir [a special wing of J&K Police that deals with terrorism-related cases] which accused me of spying for Pakistan. My family was not informed about my arrest.When the interrogation started, I was least prepared for the ordeal. They bombarded me with questions: Who else is working with you for Pakistan? To whom are you sending pictures from Kashmir [he is a photo-journalist]? When they did not get the answers they wanted, the torture intensified. I was subjected to sleep deprivation and was denied food for the first three days. I was kicked and beaten with a rubber baton. They then chained my hands and left me hanging from the top of a door. They told me in no uncertain terms that unless I confessed that I was spying for Pakistan, I would not see my family again. I cried often. Sometimes I thought I would die in that dark torture cell and no one would ever know about it.On the fifth day, my feet were manacled and I was ruthlessly beaten up. I then heard somebody outside say, “Don’t worry, I will make him speak.” I peered through the slit in the door and found that it was Senior Superintendent of Police Ashkhoor Wani, who headed the CIK. As a journalist I knew him for years. He was notorious but I had never imagined that one day I would become his prey.The torture started afresh. My hands were tied behind with a rope, one end of which was rolled over a metal pipe fixed to the ceiling. They pulled the rope and I was hanging in mid-air. It was very painful. I felt as if my brain was going to burst. Every time I was subjected to this torture, I collapsed and lost consciousness. The torture would then stop, only to restart when I regained consciousness. When they tired of it, they stretched my legs wide and the balls of the joints were displaced. I could not walk properly for six months after that.There were over 30 people detained there. I didn’t know where they were from. But they all were terrified and silent. After 15 days, the CIK prepared a dossier on me and I was detained under the Public Safety Act for over three years. I was released in January after the police failed to press charges against me in court.

The detention facility has since been shifted to Humhama area in Budgam district.As told to Syed Nazakat

The courageous struggle of the prisoners at Pelican Bay should make many more people sit up and take notice and ask—and find the answers to—some important questions about the U.S. prison system.

Why does the U.S. , which has 5% of the world's population, have 25% of its prisoners?

Why has the number of prisoners in the U.S. gone from half a million in 1980 to over 2.3 million in the last three decades?

Why are so many of those incarcerated in the U.S. people of color?

And why does the U.S. routinely carry out torture in its prisons?

The truth of the matter—and the bigger context for the inhumane conditions in maximum security units like the Pelican Bay Prison SHU—is that this system, with its police, laws, courts, and prisons is using mass incarceration to enforce oppressive economic and social relations, especially in terms of the systematic subjugation of Black people as a people. And I really encourage people to read the special Revolution issue on prisons, “From the Hellholes of Incarceration to a Future of Emancipation,” which provides a deep analysis of mass incarceration in the United States.

This system of U.S. capitalism, from its very inception , has, in large part, been built on and developed by carrying out the most brutal oppression of Native Americans, Black people and other people of color.

This oppression has been woven into the whole fabric of U.S. society, from the days of slavery until today. It has been and is an integral part of the economic and social structure in this country. White supremacy has and continues to maintain Black people in a subjugated position in every aspect of society. And all this has created, and today still maintains a “master class” of white people and a “pariah class” of Black people.

In this way, the systematic oppression of Black and other people of color has been, and continues to be, part of the very glue that holds U.S. society together—even as it has gone through different changes and been enforced in different ways. The outright ownership of Black people under slavery gave way to Jim Crow segregation and Ku Klux Klan terror. And now we have what has been called “the new Jim Crow” of police brutality and murder and the mass incarceration of hundreds of thousands of Black people.

The subjugation of Black people is a pillar of this system—a part of the economic and social relations in society, and white supremacy is a key element in the dominant ideology. And this is why this system cannot get rid of the oppression of Black people—because to do so would mean tearing up and undermining the whole economic, social and ideological/culture basis of U.S. society.

Why has there been such a drastic increase in the U.S. prison population? This has never been in response to crime—crime rates have actually gone down over the last three decades. This has been about control and suppression. It started in response to the mass upsurges among Black people in the '60s—which shook the system and had a huge impact throughout society. At the same time, globalization and de-industrialization had devastated the inner cities and millions of Black people, especially the youth, who could no longer be profitably employed, were seen by this system as an unwanted, volatile “surplus” that had to be controlled. Concessions from the system, like programs that were supposed to address poverty and inequality, were being snatched back, leading to further impoverishment.

As the special Revolution issue on the oppression of Black people said, “Two things were at work: the needs of capital, which continued to gain advantage from racist discrimination and ghetto-ization of millions of African-Americans; and the necessity of the capitalists to not disrupt—and in fact to reassert and reinforce with a vengeance — the social glue of white supremacy—the ways in which the lie of the ‘master class' were so integral to so many people's understanding of ‘being American.'” (“The Oppression of Black People, The Crimes of This System and the Revolution We Need.”)

U.S. imperialism needed the subjugation of Black people more than ever, but could no longer do this in the naked, openly racist forms it had in the old Jim Crow. It is in this context that in 1969, H.R. Haldeman, President Nixon's top assistant, wrote in his diary that “[Nixon] emphasized that you have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to.” It is in this context that the “war on drugs” was launched—which has been the biggest factor behind the exponential rise in mass incarceration.

Why are prisoners routinely tortured in U.S. prisons? The kind of extreme torture being carried out in places like the Pelican Bay SHU is a function of the whole way this system has criminalized, demonized and dehumanized a whole section of society. It has to do with repressing those who this system fears; those this system sees have the potential to rise up against their conditions of oppression in a way that would really challenge their rule. The kind of torture being carried out in the Pelican Bay SHU serves as a brutal way to control those in prison. And it has a broader effect of mass terror against Black people throughout society.

The terror carried out by KKK lynch mobs in the South meant that any Black person had to walk in fear. Today, police brutality and murder, the practice of racial profiling and random “stop and frisk”; and mass incarceration targeting Black people and all the terror that entails—means that today any Black person has to walk in fear.

Today, mass incarceration is the leading edge of the oppression of Black people. This continues to have a devastating impact on those who are imprisoned: Many lives are ruined; many youth are literally thrown away, their potential wasted. It is almost impossible for those this system has branded a “felon” to make any kind of life for themselves if they ever get out of prison. Having a criminal record means you will face legal discrimination in things like employment and housing for the rest of your life. All this is not only horrible for the individuals involved—it is a terrible thing for society. And all this has a broader devastating effect on mothers, fathers, spouses, children, and other loved ones; on the Black community as a whole. The “war on drugs”—and all it means in terms of taking away the rights and ability of Black people to get jobs, decent housing, etc.—is a way to continue the oppression of Black people, but with the veneer and appearance of equality.

The United States goes around claiming it is the “leader of the free world” and protector of democracy and human rights. But the prisoners' hunger strike has objectively exposed the complete illegitimacy and hypocrisy of this system. This system is responsible for the torture of prisoners. The very needs and workings of this system have led to the mass incarceration of so many Black and Latino people. And getting rid of this system is the only way we can get to a whole different kind of society where there will no longer be the living hell of mass incarceration and the people as a whole can be truly liberated.

Li Onesto is the author of Dispatches from the People's War in Nepal and a writer for Revolution newspaper ( www.revcom.us ). She can be contacted at: lionesto@gmail.com

Police reform and guide lines of National Human Right Commission

The police does not have right to take the life of any person. If by his act, the policeman kills a person, he commits an offence of culpable homicide or culpable homicide amounting to murder unless such killing is not an offence under the law. Under the criminal law prevailing in India, nothing is an offence which is done in exercise of right of private defence (section 96-106 of Indian Penal Code). But the right given under these sections of Indian Penal Code is not absolute right and they can be exercised under the restriction given in section 99 and 104 of same Act.

Section 46 of criminal procedure code empowers the police officer to use reasonable force, even extending up to causing death, if found necessary to arrest the person accused of an offence punishable with death or imprisonment of life. Thus, it is evident that death caused in an encounter, if not justify, would amount to an offence of culpable homicide.

So causing death of any person without reasons can not be justified. India is a welfare state and our constitution provides right to life and personal liberty. It includes living with human dignity. It is the duty of state to ensure the fundamental rights for every person.

However the torture of police has been increasing very rapidly from the last decade. The police encounter, custodial death, custodial rape, and the atrocities of police are day to day news. To reduce these events the Janta Party Govenmenat set up Soli Sorabji Panel, but before submission of the report the government fell down and the report had not been enforced and the arbitrariness of police had been promoted in every state. Recently Times of India news paper published that largest number of custodial death was registered in UP.

On 22nd September, 2006 the Supreme Court of India in case of Prakash Singh vs

Union of India in its historical decision ordered wide reformation in police organization.

Due to its impact the police organization would be able to work without political influential and adequate reformation can be made in law and order. It would help in reducing atrocities. Faced with Supreme Court directives to implement the much delayed police reforms, union government has set in motion the process to bring a new police act, incorporating the suggestion of the Soli Sorabji Panel. The report has called for drastic changes in the 145 year old police act to introduce fixed two year tenure for police officers down the line from DGP to SHO, as well as separation of maintenance of law and order from crime investigation, duties.

Police law is continuing from the period of British which is based on police regulation Act, 1861. The object of police administration was to quash the Indian before independence and to maintain the English rule, but today the police administration is the part of India as a welfare state. So there is need to do basic change in Indian police system. The ‘police’ are the subject comes under state list of seventh schedule. Its provision is given in art. 245. So it is the subject of state and it is the responsibility of state to reform the police system. Following are the main points under police reformation:

•

The main objects of these reformations are to establish the accountability and sensitivity of police towards people which should be conducted through rule of law.

•

The second object of these reformations is to fix the tenure of police

officers. Their tenure is fixed for two year.

•

The selection procedure of DGP should be transparent and recommendation of their promotion should be made by Board of Public Services Commission (BPSC).

•

The State Government has been ordered to establish a state security commission, so that the State Government may not pressurize the police. This commission will ensure that the police will work according to constitution and law of country.

•

There shall be a Police Establishment Board in each state which shall decide all transfers, postions, promotions and other services related matters of officers of and below the rank of Dy.S.P. The State Government may interfere with the decision of the Board in exceptional cases, only after recording its reasons for doing so.

•

There shall be Police Complaint Authority at district level to look into the

complaints against police officer of and up to the rank of Dy.S.P. Similarly there should be another Police Complaints Authority at the state level to look into complaints against officers of the rank of S.P. and above. The district level authority may be headed by retired district judge and the state level authority is headed by retired judge of High Court.

•

The National Government shall also set up a national level commission at the union level to prepare a panel for being placed before the appropriate appointing authority for selection and placement of chief of central police organization, who should be given a minimum tenure of two years.

As per the amendment made in criminal procedure code, section 176 makes the provision that if any dies or disappear or rape is alleged to have been committed on any women, when such person or women is in the custody of police or in any other custody authorized by magistrate or court under this code in addition to the inquiry or investigation held by police , any inquiry shall be held by Judicial Magistrate or Metropolitan Magistrate as the case may be within whose jurisdiction the offence has been committed. The Judicial Magistrate or Metropolitan Magistrate or Executive Magistrate or police officer holding an inquiry or investigation shall within 24 hours of death of such person, forward the body of deceased with a view to its being examined to the nearest civil surgeon or other qualified medical person appointed in this behalf by the state government unless it is not possible to so for reasons to be recorded in writing.

Apart from this, National Human Right Commission issued guide lines to all chief secretaries of state and administration of union territories in dealing with death occurring in encounters with police on 29/03/1997 and on 2/12/2003 a revised guidelines have been issued and it was emphasized that state must send information to the commission of all cases of death arising out of police encounters. Following are the revised guidelines:

•

When the police officer in charge o f a police station receives information about the death in an encounter between the police party and others, he shall enter that information in the appropriate register.

•

Where the police officer belonging to the same police station are members of the encounter party, whose action resulted in death, it is desirable that such cases are made over for investigation to some other independent investigating agency, such as State CBCID. •

Whenever a specific complaint is made against the police alleging commission of a criminal act on their part, which makes out a cognizable case of culpable homicide, am FIR to this effect must be registered under appropriate sections of the IPC. Such case shall invariably be investigated by State CBCID.

•

A magisterial inquiry must invariably be held in all cases of death which occur in the course of police action. The next of kin of the deceased must invariably be associated in such inquiry.

•

Prompt prosecution and disciplinary action must be initiated against all delinquent officers found guilty in the magisterial enquiry/ police investigation.

•

Question of granting compensation to the dependents of the deceased

would depend upon the facts and circumstances of each case.

•

No out of turn promotion or instant gallantry rewards shall be bestowed on the concerned officers soon after the occurrence. It must be ensured at all costs that such reward are given / recommended only when the gallantry of the concerned officers is established beyond doubt.

•

A six monthly statement of all case of death in police action in the State shall be sent by the Director General of Police to the Commission so as to reach its office by the 15th of January and July respectively. The statement may be sent in the following format along with the postmortem reports and inquest reports wherever available and also the inquiry reports:

1. Date and place of occurrence

2. Police station and district

3. Circumstances leading to deathsi. Self defence in encounter.ii. In the course of dispersal of unlawful assembly.iii.In the course of effecting arrest.

Along with above guidelines the then CJI send their request to all the state and territories

to adhere these guidelines in letter and spirit both.

National projects on torture in India: demands that

•

Ratified the un convention against torture and its optional protocol

•

Enact legislation to prevent corporal punishment in schools.

•

Enact a domestic legislation that makes torture a punishable offence and provides

for the protection and care of victims and witnesses.

•

Enforce strict implementation of the Preventation Of Atrocities Act,1989

•

Establish District Human Right Courts under the protection of Human Right Act,

1993

Now the time has come to reform the entire police system to prevent the police torture of innocent people. The constitution of India establishes the India as a welfare state, which can be achieved only after following the police reformation and implement the ruling of the apex court. The police should be people friendly. The efforts should be made at every level and the parliament should pass the law and new Police Act should be made by parliamentarians. This will be helpful in reducing the police torture and it will fulfill the real sense of policing.

Veerappan's wife seeks CBI probe into STF atrocities

The wife of slain forest brigand Veerappan, V Muthulakshmi, has sought a detailed CBI probe into alleged atrocities committed on tribals and villagers in MM Hills by personnel of the Special Task Force constituted to nab her husband in the 1990s.

Muthulakshmi welcomed the recent Karnataka high court order striking down Shankar M Bidari's appointment as DG&IG. "But there is still need for a CBI probe into STF atrocities; he was a commandant of that force," she said on Friday.

She alleged Bidari and his team had tortured women, who had no connection with Veerappan, including her. "He administered electric shocks to parts of my body which I cannot even explain. Many women took their lives, orphaning their children," she said.

Muthulakshmi alleged that the film being made on her husband's life - 'Attahasa' (in Kannada) and 'Vamayudham' (Tamil version) - by filmmaker MR Ramesh, is full of lies. She has approached Madras high court seeking a stay on its making. "The film infringes on my right to privacy," she added.

'He was a good man'

"Avar Nallavar (He was a nice man)," Muthulakshmi said about her husband, brigand Veerappan, eight years after he was killed in police action.

"It is politicians and police who spoiled him. I know those netas but do not want to take their names," she told TOI. "I am not saying he was faultless. He had shot a few elephants for ivory and axed some sandalwood trees. But he also planted sandalwood saplings, saying the forest shouldn't be emptied," she said.

Shankar Bidari worse than Saddam Hussain, Gaddafi: HC

In a scathing verdict, Karnataka High Court today struck down appointment of Shankar Bidari as state DGP and IG, describing him as "worse than Saddam Hussain or Muammar Gaddafi" for alleged atrocities committed by the STF led by him during the hunt to nab forest brigand Veerappan.

Dismissing as "without merit and substance", petitions by the government and Bidari, challenging the CAT order, the division bench headed by Justice N Kumar held his empanelment by UPSC and consequent appointment as "void and illegal."

Upholding the verdict of Central Administrative Tribunal the court said "in the facts of the case, we cannot find any infirmity in the said decision. It is just".

It struck down Bidari's contentions "absolving himself of the responsibility" of atrocities by stating he was only Deputy Commander of the Joint Task Force of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to nab Veerappan and not "omnipresent and omnipotent like Saddam Hussain or Muammar Gaddafi."

"Though he was not one of them, if what the two women (tribals) have said in their affidavit is true, he is worse than them" (Saddam Hussain and Muamar Gadaffi),the court said in its acerbic observations.

The court directed the government should relieve Bidari forthwith and appoint A R Infant in his place. "Otherwise they are answerable to the public of the state".

The court dismissed the memo filed by the government seeking a one week stay of the order. It observed "if the state government has any respect for the rule of law, womanhood, human rights, concern for the downtrodden, tribals, and socially backward communities of the state, they should relieve the third respondent (Bidari) forthwith and appoint the applicant (A R Infant) in that place."

On March 16, CAT had set aside Bidari's appointment as DGP and IG and ruled that Infant should be appointed ad hoc police chief till the government decides on the new appointment.

CAT said government should prepare a fresh list of senior IPS officers and send it to UPSC, which would suggest three names for the top post.

On the court verdict, Infant told PTI "I am lucky that my case was tried by judges with great conviction, both at CAT and High Court. I admire their courage of conviction".

Observing that Chief Minister should have used his discretion while exercising his absolute power in selecting Bidari for the post, the court stated "......but such discretionary power must be exercised with great caution.....the Chief Minister before exercising his power did not see the police records".

Quoting extracts from the National Human Rights Commission report, which was not placed before the Union Public Service Commission before empanelment as it was not considered "relevant", the court stated that NHRC concluded that one woman was a victim of rape and repeated torture, three women were subjected electric currents through different parts of their body, seven subjected to illegal detention and assault, three suffered permanent disability, 11 stripped naked and given electric shocks, 12 unlawfully detained, one was taken into custody but never returned and 60 were killed in encounters out of 36 were killed in "false encounters".

Referring to the affidavits filed by tribal women Erammal and Nagi before an NGO which was produced before the court and indicted Bidari, the court stated "Erammal was taken to Dimbam police camp, beaten with a lathi as a result of which she lost sight in her right eye, She was then taken Mahadeshwara camp where she was stripped naked, beaten and given electric shocks in different parts of her body in front of Bidari".

The court then cited the instance of Nagi who taken to the M M Hills camp, was blindfolded and interrogated by Bidari who passed currents through different parts of her body and then she was gang raped.

The court observed that though the then governments accepted the recommendations of the NHRC accorded compensation to the victims and then DG and IG (Achutha Rao) promised to initiate action against the perpetrators, no action was initiated. Probably they (the then CMs) lacked the "political will and courage" to direct action against these acts.

Taking a swipe at the present day politics, the court observed "people who are in opposition party preach values, criticise the acts of the ruling party. Gullible public believe them and they are voted to power, but when they come to power they realise it is very difficult to practice what they preach and when they are seated in super power (ruling party) all these values evaporate. They succumb to corruption. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely".

Therefore it is immaterial, the court observed which party comes to power, what ideology they believe in, what principles they preach. Once they come to power, they become the ruling party. This is the democracy which is in practice.

It appears that the present day state government and Bidari after occupying the present position seems to have forgotten was was said 15 years back, the court observed. "By characterising this report as "one without jurisdiction, giving the impression that it was not a document of any importance.....government of the day and Bidari are afraid of truth....we are convinced that the report of the Sadashiv Panel, NHRC was deliberately kept back", the court obseved.

There is no disputing the fact, the court stated, that the record of Bidari during his tenure in STF of Karnataka and his bio-data which was prepared by himself wherein he stated the exemplary service that he rendered that won him the gallantry award and a cash prize of Rs 1.68 crore, was placed before the UPSC. "This is the positive side of the story that was placed before the UPSC".

What is clear from the report, the court observed is there were allegations against STF personnel of Karnataka that they committed atrocities on innocent villagers of 48 villages, committed murder, false encounters, rape and torture and 20 written complaints were filed before the NHRC.

On Bidari's contention that he was not personally indicted by NHRC, the court observed that the NHRC has categorically stated that it has not indicted any one as it has been unable to identify the perpetrators of the acts. "This only shows the fairness and application of judicial mind".

The court observed "from the report, it is clear that atrocities were committed by police on the instructions of R3 and while the state and the police assured of action against the culprits, no action has been till date.

What is to be considered, the court observed is whether such a person who has "no concern for women, her rights, her safety and that of the poor tribals, downtrodden and socially backward classes. A person with such a bent of mind can head the state police force to maintain law and order, whether their (public) interests are safe in such hands.

These are the facts which UPSC and the state Chief Minister should have considered while exercising the power conferred on him and it is these factual findings of the Sadashiva panel and the NHRC which the government should have placed before the UPSC. "In the absence of such material, the assessment by the UPSC and state government is vitiated", the court said.

Reflecting on the mindset of Bidari, who wants to absolve himself from the responsibility stating that he was only acting under the supervision and control of Walter Davaram, the commander of the STF, the court observed "even after 15 years, there is no remorse, he is not prepared to accept the responsibility........whatever may the provocation, we cannot tolerate for a second rape...... as a means of investigation by the police".

Finally, in an message to the Chief Minister, the court stated "it is not a legal issue but a moral issue. As a head of the state, what are the various concerns, what is the message he is sending has to be kept in mind. Even now it is not too late to keep the interests of the public in mind and assure that previous dispensation would not be repeated and appropriate action taken".

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT

AI Index: ASA 20/002/2008(Public)Date: 18 January 2008

India: Many adivasi victims of Special Task Force (STF) operations yetto get justice and compensation in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu

Amnesty International is concerned that several adivasi (indigenousand marginalized communities) victims of the decade-long Special TaskForce (STF) operations against Veerappan, who was killed by the STFafter being outlawed for sandalwood smuggling, are yet to receivejustice and compensation for the human rights violations perpetratedagainst them. Human rights violations perpetrated in the course ofoperations against Veerappan included unlawful killings; arbitrarydetention; and torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatmentor punishment (ill-treatment), including sexual violence.

Amnesty International has learnt that, one year after an officialpanel of inquiry led by Justice A. J. Sadashiva ordering theGovernment of Karnataka to pay compensation to 51 victims, 13 of themhave yet to receive it. The Government of Tamil Nadu has paidcompensation amounts to 38 victims as directed in the order. InJanuary 2007, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had directedthe two governments to pay compensation to 89 victims as per therecommendations of the panel of inquiry.

Notwithstanding the above order, during the past year, human rightsorganizations in the two states have been campaigning to ensurejustice for 104 other victims whose complaints of human rightsviolations including arbitrary and indefinite detention, torture,including to death, other ill-treatment and sexual assault werereportedly ignored by the panel. The panel also failed to initiatecharges against any of the 39 STF officials named as perpetrators bythe victims during the proceedings, though it concluded that the STFhad perpetrated torture. However, Amnesty International has learntthat a number of complaints against 39 STF officials have neverthelessbeen filed by the victims in several police stations in Tamil Nadu andKarnataka.

In spite of the filed complaints, a number of STF personnel named asperpetrators in the victims' complaints were given awards andpromotions; furthermore, some of the officials named by the victimswere reportedly present in an official function held to distributecompensation amounts in Karnataka in March 2007, leading to protestsfrom the victims.As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights, India is obliged to "ensure that any person whose rights orfreedoms... are violated shall have an effective remedy"; to "ensurethat any person claiming such a remedy shall have his right theretodetermined by competent judicial, administrative or legislativeauthorities, or by any other competent authority provided for by thelegal system of the State, and to develop the possibilities ofjudicial remedy"; and to "ensure that the competent authorities shallenforce such remedies when granted."

Amnesty International, therefore, urges• the Government of Karnataka to immediately distribute compensationamounts to the 13 remaining victims as per the January 2007 order;• the authorities of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to thoroughlyinvestigate the pending human rights complaints against the 39 STFofficials and bring those suspected of perpetrating violations tojustice, in proceedings which meet international standards of fairnessand without the imposition of the death penalty;• immediately suspend the officials named in the complaints fromactive duty pending completion of investigations;and• the NHRC to participate in the above cases to help to ensure thatthere is justice for the victims.• the NHRC to re-examine victims' complaints ignored by the officialpanel.

Background

In 1993, the Governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had created theSTF to catch Veerappan and his associates who had remained outlawedfor more than seven years. On 21 October 2004, Veerappan and two ofhis associates were killed during the STF operations. In all, 36persons lost their lives during the STF operations.

In June 1999, the NHRC appointed the official panel, consisting ofJustice Sadashiva and a former Director-General of India's premierinvestigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Thepanel submitted its recommendations in December 2003.

Recently, it has been reported in the media , how in gujarath statehigh ranking police officials took SUPARI to murder & committed themurders by giving it the name of encounter. Nowadays , it has becomecommon place that police take law into their own hands , settlescores , conducts their own courts of justice like compromisepanchayaths at police stations. All these acts of police are illegal ,the police must be first thought the lessons of law before enforcingit. The murderers , criminals in police uniform must be punished atthe earliest.

At the outset , HRW salutes the few honest police personnel who aresilently doing their duties inspite of pressures , harassment bypolitical bosses & corrupt superiors , inspite of frequent transfers ,promotion holdups , etc. overcoming the lure of bribe ,those few aresilently doing their duties without any publicity or fanfare. wesalute them & pay our respects to them and hereby appeal to those fewhonest to catch their corrupt colleagues.

The police are trained , to crack open the cases of crimes by justholding onto a thread of clue. Based on that clue they investigatelike "Sherlock holmes" and apprehend the real criminals. nowadays ,when police are under various pressures , stresses – they arefrequently using 3rd degree torture methods on innocents. Mainly thereare 3 reasons for this :

1) when the investigating officer (I.O) lacks the brains of Sherlockholmes , to cover-up his own inefficiency he uses 3rd degreetorture on innocents.

2) When the I.O is biased towards rich , powerful crooks , to frameinnocents & to extract false confessions from them , 3rd degreetorture is used on innocents.

3) When the I.O is properly doing the investigations , but the higher-ups need very quick results – under work stress I.O uses 3rd degreetorture on innocents.

Nowhere in statuette books , police are legally authorized to punishlet alone torture the detainees / arrested / accussed / suspects. Onlythe judiciary has the right to punish the guilty not the police. Eventhe judiciary doesn't have the right to punish the accussed /suspects , then how come police are using 3rd degree tortureunabetted. Even during encounters , police only have the legal right ,authority to immobilize the opponents so as to arrest them but not tokill them.

There is a reasoning among some sections of society & police that useof 3RD DEGREE TORTURE by police is a detterent of crimes. It is false& biased. Take for instance there are numerous scams involving 100'sof crores of public money – like stock scam , fodder scam , etcinvolving rich businessmen , VVIP crooks. Why don't police use 3rddegree torture against such rich crooks and recover crores of publicmoney where as the police use 3rd degree torture against a pick-pocketer to recover hundred rupees stolen ? double standards bypolice.

In media we have seen numerous cases of corrupt police officials inleague with criminals. For the sake of bribe , such police officialsbury cases , destroy evidences , go slow , frame innocents , murderinnocents in the name of encounter , etc. why don't police use 3rddegree torture against their corrupt colleagues who are aidingcriminals , anti nationals ? double standards by police.All the bravery of police is shown before poor , innocents , tribals ,dalits , before them police give the pose of heroes. Whereas ,before rich , VVIP crooks , they are zeroes. They are simply likescarecrows before rich crooks.

Torture in any form by anybody is inhuman & illegal. For the purposeof investigations police have scientific investigative tools likepolygraph, brain mapping , lie detector , etc. these scientific toolsmust be used against rich crooks & petty criminals without bias.hereby we urge the GOI & all state governments :

1) to book cases of murder against police personnel who use 3rd degreetorture on detainees and kill detainees in the name of encounterkillings.

2) To dismiss such inhuman , cruel personnel from police service andto forfeit all monetary benefits due to them like gratuity , pension ,etc.

3) To pay such forfeited amount together with matching governmentcontribution as compensation to family of the victim's of 3rd degreetorture & encounter killings.

4) To review , all cases where false confessions were extracted frominnocents by 3rd degree torture.

5) To make liable the executive magistrate of the area , in whosejurisdiction torture is perpetrated by police on innocents.

6) To make it incumbent on all judicial magistrates ,to provide atorture free climate to all parties , witnesses in cases before hiscourt.

7) To make public the amount & source of ransom money paid to forestbrigand veerappan to secure the release of matinee idol mr. raj kumar.

8) To make public justice A.J.Sadashiva's report on "torture oftribals , human rights violations by Karnataka police in M.M.HILLS ,KARNATAKA".

9) To make it mandatory for police to use scientific tools ofinvestigations like brain mapping , polygraph , etc without biasagainst suspects rich or poor.

10) To include human rights education in preliminary & refreshertraining of police personnel.

11) To recruit persons on merit to police force who have aptitude &knack for investigations.

12) To insulate police from interference from politicians & superiors.

13) To make police force answerable to a neutral apex body instead ofpolitical bosses. Such body must be empowered to deal with all servicematters of police.

14) The political bosses & the society must treat police in a humanemanner and must know that they too have practical limitations. Then ona reciprocal basis , police will also treat others humanely.

15) The police must be relieved fully from the sentry duties ofbiggies & must be put on detective , investigative works.